ZeaChem Scales-up Biomass-to-acetic Acid Process

2:31 AM MST | February 3, 2010 | Alex Scott

ZeaChem (Lakewood, CO), a bioprocessing firm, says it has successfully tested a fermentation process for manufacturing acetic acid from renewable biomass to a scale of 5,000 liters, up from laboratory scale of 0.5 liters. The production of acetic acid is the first process step in ZeaChem’s plan to manufacture fuels and chemicals from cellulosic biomass. The results demonstrate the successful fermentation of greater than 50 grams of acetic acid/liter in less than 100 hours, exceeding ZeaChem’s target concentration levels for the process at this stage...